Dream Phone

A game for preteen girls. Not very many people have played this, but several million have suffered from the commercial. Three girls are playing it at a slumber party. In the background you hear music and suddenly, "Who who who's got a crush on you?" One of the girls picks up a card and screams enthusiastically, "It's Dan! Dan my man!" She picks up the phone to cut to a split screen with a 20-year-old lifeguard saying, "You're right, I really like you!" All three girls scream, "Yes!" And one holds the phone up to the camera and says, "Dream Phone--it's for you."

Now the entire idea of this commercial scares me. It sends eleven year old girls the idea that it is okay for someone almost twice your age to like you in a romantic sense and take action on it. Plus, I'm not a feminist, but I think the concept of waiting around for a boy/man to call you is wrong.

And lifeguards? They only wish. I know this is supposed to be a "fun" game, but submitting yourself to all your stupid fantasies of a hunky lover is about the stupidest thing one can do. I don't know if it's just me, but I could never, even as an eleven-year-old, enjoy liking people that were more attractive than me. It just made me feel inadequate. Just like this game.